


An Important Mission

by madmeridian



Category: Death Note & Related Fandoms, Death Note (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Sick Fic, Wammy’s Era, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:33:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27087901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madmeridian/pseuds/madmeridian
Summary: Near goes missing for a few days and Mello drags Matt along to find him.
Relationships: Mello | Mihael Keehl/Near | Nate River
Comments: 8
Kudos: 45





	An Important Mission

**Author's Note:**

> From a lovely anon on tumblr: “No pressure or rushing but I have another meronia fanfic idea, during the Wammy’s era, Near would get sick badly like a heaving pneumonia or something and had to be rushed to the hospital at night by Roger and in the morning Mello would find out Near isn’t in the common room like he usually does and soon finds out something is wrong and beings to worry” 
> 
> I did change a few things, but I hope you like it!!!

Mello bit off some chocolate, looking in every room as he passed by. He was searching for Matt, who was probably off somewhere playing a video game. They had a goddamn partner project to do, but the redhead was avoiding doing it. 

Mello was more concerned with his grades, so he was looking everywhere for the other boy. 

After grilling a few of the other kids, they told him that Matt had been hiding elsewhere, but had moved to the common room, thinking it was safe. Mello stormed off to the common room to find Matt. 

Coming up behind him, he wrenched the DS out of Matt’s hand. Matt looked up at him apologetically, knowing he’d been caught. 

“Come on, we gotta go do this project,” Mello ordered. Matt reluctantly stood and followed.

As they were leaving, Mello heard a terrible coughing from the corner of the room. It sounded pained and disgusting. He searched the room and saw it was Near. The albino looked terrible, shivering and paler than usual. 

“I think he’s sick,” Matt piped up. “He doesn’t look so good.” 

“Obviously,” Mello sneered. “Maybe he’ll miss class.” 

“Jesus,” Matt muttered, just as tired of their rivalry as he always was. “Let’s go, man.” 

They both ambled back to their room to get their project done. Matt tried to help, but Mello always batted him away or told him to do some other part. He didn’t work the best with others, but he could tolerate Matt. 

The next day, they turned it in and Mello was pleased they’d gotten it done. 

His mood quickly turned sour when he realized someone was missing from their class. Near wasn’t there for him to pick on. He was going to make a jibe about how Near didn’t have the friends to work with for a project, but the boy’s seat was empty. 

_He must really be sick then. It’s fine, he’ll be at dinner and I can pick on him there._

But he wasn’t there either. Near normally sat alone, at the same exact spot at the same exact table every time. But it was empty. 

Mello heard whispers that Roger had apparently driven someone away last night. One of the other boys told him he saw Roger carrying someone into the car he took. Roger hadn’t come back and one of the other staff was taking over his duties for the time being. 

_Near couldn’t be…_

Another day passed and the rumors seemed to be true. Roger and Near both remained missing. Near’s seat remained empty for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. After hearing one of the other kids spin a tale about how Near was probably going to die because he was sick, Mello left the cafeteria. 

Mello dragged Matt down to their room and shut the door. Matt flopped down onto his bed. 

“We have to figure out where they went,” Mello said confidently. 

“Why would we want to do that?” Matt asked. “Let’s do something more fun. We could go replace all the files on Roger’s computer.” 

“No. I think Roger took Near somewhere. And we have to figure it out.” 

“Probably the hospital, since Near was all sick and stuff.” 

“So we should go there first!” 

“What the hell? We can’t sneak out!” 

“Yes, we can! It can’t be that hard.”

Matt gaped at him as he threw on a jacket. Mello looked at him expectantly and the other boy slipped out of bed to put his shoes on.

“We’re going to get in so much trouble,” Matt mumbled, throwing on a jacket. 

“It’ll be fine,” Mello reassured. He opened the door and looked to make sure no one was in the hall. It wasn’t past curfew yet, but if anyone saw them with jackets on, they’d know something was afoot. 

They tiptoed through the halls, peeking around corners and hiding in little alcoves to avoid the other orphans. They were very nearly to the front door when-

“Mello! Matt! What are you doing?” 

“Linda,” Mello hissed. The girl came bouncing up to them, all excited energy. 

“What are you guys up to?” 

“Nothing,” Matt lied.

“Why’ve you got jackets on?” 

Mello grimaced. Linda couldn’t keep her mouth shut and if she told anyone else, they’d probably be done for. The orphanage was full of snotty-nosed snitches. 

“Need a bit of fresh air,” Mello said smoothly. “We were going to hop out for a second and take a small walk. Want to play games with us later when we come back?” 

Linda’s face brightened considerably and she nodded happily. Mello felt guilty for lying to her, but they could play a game or two with her tomorrow to make up for it. Or do art stuff with her. She was forgiving, at least. 

“Okay! I’ll be in the common room!” She sped off, just as fast as she’d appeared. 

“That was too close,” Matt breathed. He opened the front door and peeked out. “How are we gonna reach the gate? They’ll see us.” 

“We have to run for it.” Mello eyed the gates. “Come on, we gotta be fast.” 

They sprinted across the lawn, trying to stay low but move fast. Mello nearly froze when he heard a staff member yell. 

“Mello! Matt! Get back here!” 

“Jump the fence,” Mello yelled at Matt. He climbed it himself, falling onto the other side with Matt dropping down a second later. They both took off down the street, towards the hospital. Matt was wheezing as they ran as fast and far as they could. Nobody was immediately following them, but Mello knew that if they slowed too much they’d be on their heels. 

After a bit of running, Matt pulled Mello into an alleyway, breathing hard. He sat down on the gross ground and let out a stressed sigh. 

“We still have a bit to go, but they probably don’t know where we’re heading. Keep your hood up,” Mello said, pulling it up for Matt. He tightened his own and looked around. No one was there.

“You didn’t tell me we’d be running,” Matt complained as Mello pulled him up and started to drag him towards their goal. 

“We won’t anymore, promise.” 

They trudged on, ducking into alleyways and behind signs whenever a car passed by. No one was on the lookout for them, though. 

“Why are we doing this?”

“To go find Roger and Near.” 

“Yeah, but _why_? You don’t even like Roger or Near.” 

“Well, because…” Mello paused. He really didn’t know why he was doing this. He’d dragged Matt here, at the risk of being caught, but for what? 

“You’re worried about Near, aren’t you? You’ve been antsy all day, looking at where he normally sits.” 

“No!” Mello barked. “He’s my rival!” 

Matt snorted and looked around. “You’re totally worried about him. It’s fine, Mels.” 

“Bug off,” Mello said. The hospital was now visible and Mello hurried forward. He needed to get there. 

Mello confidently strode up to the desk when they were inside and looked at the receptionist, who raised an eyebrow at them. 

“We’re here to visit someone,” Mello announced. 

“What’s their name?” she asked skeptically. 

Mello stuttered and faltered when she asked that. They wouldn’t use Near’s real name here, but he didn’t know what alias they’d use. Fuck, they’d come here for nothing. 

“What are you boys doing here?” Mello whirled around to see Roger standing over them, looking like he was barely restraining his disapproval. 

“We came to visit Near. He’s here, isn’t he?” 

Roger sighed heavily and looked at the receptionist. “I’m sorry, they’re with me. Come along.” 

They padded along the hallway and into one of the rooms. It smelled clean, too clean, and the calmness of the place irritated Mello. 

Near was tangled up in a soft blanket on the bed in the room, sleeping. He looked worse than he had before, tired and obviously sick. Roger sat down in one of the chairs and waved for them to sit. Matt sat in the other, leaving Mello to sit on the bed. 

“How did you two get here?” Roger asked tiredly. 

“We snuck out,” Matt admitted before Mello could think up a good lie. “Mello was worried about Near.” 

Mello was about to open his mouth to protest, but Near took that moment to blink awake and cough, still sounding awful as he had before. Maybe worse. Roger looked over at him tiredly and unhelpfully. 

“I have to go call and tell them you’re both here,” Roger said helplessly. “Please, stay here.” He left them alone in the room. Mello moved to sit in his vacated chair, looking at Near, who was laying back down but staring at him. 

“What are you doing here?” he asked after a minute. His voice was rough from coughing. 

“We came to make sure you weren’t dead.” Matt had brought his DS and pulled it out, ignoring their little conversation. 

“Oh,” Near said quietly. “Thank you.” 

“Don’t mention it,” Mello said, looking up at the ceiling. He was too irritated that Matt was right and that he _had_ been worried about Near. 

Mello chose to ignore the absolutely smug look Matt was giving him.

**Author's Note:**

> yaaaaay! another prompt done!!! I really loved writing this one, I wanted to treat it like Mello and Matt on a little mission to figure out what’s going on. And then Near’s just like ???? thanks i guess????
> 
> anyway, hope you all enjoyed this one. i have another little drabble I’ll post after this, so maybe see you there?? it isn’t meronia so maybe not but still. 
> 
> also i’m thinking of headcanons to use for like ficlets (less than 1,000 words, i tend to stick between 200-500), so if you have headcanons you want to see as a little ficlet, feel free to comment or send an ask thru my tumblr. The link is in my profile and you don’t have to have an account to send an anonymous ask! The other fic I’ll be posting today is based off a headcanon ask I got! I also made a twitter too if you want to follow (i’ll follow back bc I don’t know many people) It’s the same as my ao3 and tumblr name lol (if you see Kermit you’re in the right place) 
> 
> anyway, thank you all for reading!!!!! All kudos and comments are appreciated and I will always do my best to respond to comments if you leave any <3


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